User's Manual

Winmate Communication Inc. User Guide Feb 12, 2001

network, was adopted by Microsoft, and has since become a de facto industry

standard. It is not routable across a WAN.

open system authentication

The IEEE 802.11 default authentication method, which is a very simple, two-step

process. First the station wanting to authenticate with another station sends an

authentication management frame containing the sending station’s identity. The

receiving station then sends back a frame alerting whether it recognizes the identity of

the authenticating station.

Open System Interconnection (OSI)

An ISO standard specifying an open system capable of enabling the communications

between diverse systems. It has the following seven layers of distinction: physical,

data link, network, transport, session, and application. These layers provide the

functions necessary to allow standardized communications between two application

processes.

peer-to-peer network

A network where there are communications between a group of equal devices. A

peer-to-peer LAN does not depend on a dedicated server, but allows any node to be

installed as a non-dedicated server and share its files and peripherals across the

network.

physical layer

Provides the transmission of bits through a communication channel by defining

electrical, mechanical, and procedural specifications.

Point Coordination Function (PCF)

An IEEE 802.11 mode that enables contention-free frame transfer based on a priority

mechanism. Enables time-bounded services that support the transmission of voice and

video.

Quadrature Phase Shift Keying (QPSK)

A modulation technique that changes the phase of a signal to represent different,

four-bit binary words.

Radio Frequency (RF) Terms: GHz, MHz, Hz